Baby Boomers are Luddites

I read this comment on a legal blog I visit from time to time, Above the Law. The blog is mostly about "big law" firms in NYC, but it has articles that have relevancy to me as well, and its always a good idea to keep informed about one's profession in the "big markets."

So this comment is about how baby boomers are, for the most part, quite computer illerate. They figured out how to program the VCR, but aren't quite up to speed when using a computer, or maneuvering about most of todays top tech (ipods, texting, twittering, etc.) I have to agree, at least in general, but mostly for older boomers. Granted there are some exceptions, exceptionally bright people who have learned to use computers, or those that were educated in math, science, engineering. But in my line of work, I'd say probably 50% of those over 45 and 75% of those over 50 are barely able to respond to an email, let alone how to use MS Word.

Of course, given I was born in 1964, supposedly I'm "technically" part of the baby boomer generation. I usually take great umbrage to that designation, because I feel I have virtually nothing in common with boomers, especially those 15-20 years older than me. Hello, I didn't get to take advantage of cheap housing, little to no student loans, and career development. Instead, I've been stuck with higher taxes, higher housing and education costs, funding my own retirement from the git go (while trying to afford housing, taxes and student loans), and I'm a bit stymied in career development because most boomers won't let go.

The one thing I always felt I had a bit of an advantage is in my computer literacy. I got a head start because my dad worked for Xerox, so we actually had a computer at home since I was in high school. In college, I was using a Xerox memory writer with discs, a very very early version of a word processing program on a PC. It was huge help in law school, I was nearly the only person that would type up my class notes for studying. I actually spent most of my time on law review helping other students edit and format their articles. I've not gone without my own home computer since probably 1992 (no sharing for me, hubby has his own).

Now I definitely am not as 'up to speed' on some things, I'm a pretty slow texter (damn buttons are too small), I don't really care to read tweets 50 times a day and I haven't yet downloaded music to an mp3 player (I want to, its just a matter of finding the time to download my hundreds of CDs into a player and finding earbuds that don't fall out of my ears). But maneuvering around a computer is something I am pretty good at, and this is actually where I've had some issues at work.

For the first time ever in my career, I have a secretary all to myself. I'm the only attorney she works for (in general at least, she helps out others frequently). Previously, I've always had to share a secretary, and at least partly due to having to wait for my work to get done, and my typing speed, I've found that its probably 3-4 times as fast for me to type something up, letters, briefs, memos, than it is for me to dictate it, wait for my secretary (who types slower than me) to type it up, revise the letter and correct all her errors, have her fix all her errors, proof read the document again and fix other errors, have her fix more errors and then finalize the document. Instead, I can create the document as I think of it, revise it as I go, run a spell check, proof read one time, then give it to her to put in "final form."

Granted, some things are easier to dictate (summarizing depositions, transcripts and documents, for example). But that's probably no more than 1/5 of my job. Maybe its because I'm used to seeing my thoughts instantenously on the computer screen, but when I dictate, especially a long letter or memo, I've sometimes forgotten what I've said before. If I'm typing it, I can instantly curser up screen to see what I wrote, but with a dictaphone, I either have to let it go and revise the letter later or rewind the tape and listen to the whole thing. Either way is more time consuming. And lets not get into the instances where I've dictated almost an entire tape side only to have the tape break and now I have to redo the whole damn thing.

So even with my own secretary, I do a lot of my own work. I give my secretary things to do, but she still has more down time than most of the other secretaries. My boss tells me I have to dictate more. Grrrr, I hate it. I am significantly more productive when I do my own typing. I have limited time in the office due to child care issues, so I try to get as much done at the office as I possibly can. So its annoying to have to redo and redo and recorrect a report or brief or memo three, four and five times. I end up taking a lot of correction work home to review after the kids are in bed, but this annoys me because I like having what little free time I get at home available to me to catch up on tv shows, or watch a movie. Spelling errors I can understand, but it does annoy me to see errors that doing a little checking in the case file or looking something up online would solve (like getting an address, or knowing how to spell 'ischial', or spelling a party's name wrong).

Why does my boss want me to dictate? Because he does and it keeps secretaries busy. He dictates everything, including his time entries. Maybe if my secretary didn't make as many errors as she does, or would take a little initiative to find out information that's in the case file or easily found online without me having to spoon feed it to her, I wouldn't mind as much, but I still find it easier for me to just type things myself. I've tried to compromise, dictate some time, email her things to do, take work home to correct errors or make revisions, but its annoying. Frankly, if I didn't like my secretary as much as I do, I would have pushed to just share one a long time ago, but I like her a lot as a person, I get along with her better than most of the rest, so I want her to stay. I just wish she'd maybe care a bit more about her job and become a real legal assistant so I could give her subtantive work to do that would really help me. Summarize depositions, documents, prepare draft answers to discovery, stuff I could just review and add to, without having to do the whole thing myself. That would be useful.

In the meantime, I have to deal with my luddite boss, use the stupid dictaphone and teach my secretary how to google.